“As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.”
My Notes
What Does Daniel 1:17 Mean?
Daniel and his three friends — Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah — are given exceptional ability by God: knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. Daniel specifically receives understanding in visions and dreams. These gifts are explicitly attributed to God: "God gave them."
The young men are in the most hostile educational environment imaginable — a Babylonian academy designed to erase their Jewish identity and replace it with Babylonian culture. They've been renamed, re-educated, and re-dieted. And in the middle of that assimilation machine, God gives them abilities that outperform every Babylonian student (verse 20: "ten times better").
The gifts serve a purpose beyond personal success: Daniel's understanding of visions and dreams will become the primary tool God uses to influence Babylonian kings and preserve His people in exile. The gift isn't for Daniel. It's for the mission.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Are you in a 'Babylonian system' right now — and how can God use your presence there rather than removing you from it?
- 2.What does Daniel's example teach about excelling within hostile environments without compromising core identity?
- 3.How does 'God gave them' change how you view your own abilities and accomplishments?
- 4.Where has God given you gifts that don't match your environment — abilities the system can't explain?
Devotional
God gave them knowledge. In Babylon. In the middle of the empire's best re-education program. God outfitted His people with abilities that made the Babylonian system serve His purposes.
Daniel and his friends were being processed through a machine designed to erase everything Jewish about them — new names, new food, new language, new education. Babylon wanted to produce loyal Babylonians. God had other plans. He used the same education system to produce the wisest men in the empire — men whose wisdom came from Him, not from Babylon.
This is subversion at its most sophisticated. Daniel didn't rebel against the system. He excelled within it — and the excellence was God-given. He was "ten times better" than every Babylonian-trained magician and astrologer. Not despite the training, but through it. God redeemed the education Babylon intended for assimilation.
"God gave them" — every ability was sourced in God. The knowledge wasn't self-generated. The wisdom wasn't earned through study alone. God downloaded capacity into four young men who had refused to compromise on their core identity (the food issue in verses 8-16) and rewarded their faithfulness with abilities their environment couldn't explain.
You might be in a Babylonian system right now — a workplace, an institution, an environment designed to reshape you. God can give you ability that outperforms the system from inside it. Not by escaping. By excelling. With gifts the system didn't produce and can't explain.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom,.... As they prospered in their…
As for these four children - On the word “children,” see the notes at Dan 1:4. Compare Dan 1:6. God gave them knowledge…
As for these four children - Young men or youths. Our translation gives a false idea.
In all visions and dreams - That…
Concerning Daniel and his fellows we have here,
I. Their great attainments in learning, Dan 1:17. They were very sober…
At the end of the three years (Dan 1:1), Daniel and his three companions are brought before the king; and being found by…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture